5-star rider Chris Cenac moves up the rankings and joins the 2023 champions

Chris Cenac Jr., a 2025 five-star big man currently competing for the U.S. Junior National Team at an international event in Turkey and on scholarship with the Syracuse basketball team, is perhaps the brightest talent in the country’s rising high school graduating class.

The 6-foot-10 power forward/center, who announced an offer from the Orange in early June, has skyrocketed in the national rankings as his offer list continues to grow and includes offers from some of the heavyweight programs in college basketball.

There’s no question that the ‘Cuse face tremendous competition in the battle for Cenac, although I give the Syracuse basketball coaches a lot of credit for pursuing him.

When both 247Sports and Rivals.com recently updated their 2025 rankings, Cenac made some of the biggest moves nationwide, and he also recently announced that he would spend his senior year at one of the top high school programs.

According to 247Sports, Cenac’s offer list has grown to at least 30 suitors. Since his offer from ‘Cuse became known, other scholarship players have also offered him, according to Cenac’s X-page, including two-time defending national champions UConn, Oregon, Southern California, Arkansas, Georgia, Georgetown, Michigan State, UCLA, Michigan and Kentucky.

His offer sheet also includes college teams such as Oklahoma State, Indiana, Alabama, Baylor, Kansas, Creighton, Texas, Ole Miss, Illinois, Oklahoma, Rutgers, Louisville, Auburn, California, Houston, LSU, Memphis, Mississippi State, SMU, Tennessee and Texas A&M.

In recent months, Cenac has shone on the AAU tour for Dallas-based YoungGameChangers in the PUMA-sponsored PRO16/NXT league. In the 2023-24 season, he was a standout player as a junior for the Isidore Newman School in New Orleans.

However, in mid-June, Cenac announced on X that he would transfer for his senior year to the powerful Link Academy in Branson, Missouri, which is part of the country’s top high school basketball league, the 14-member Nike Elite Youth Basketball League Scholastic (“EYBL Scholastic”).

There are numerous recruiting connections between the Syracuse basketball program and the EYBL Scholastic. In the 2023-24 season, Donnie Freeman, a five-star power forward committed to the Orange in 2024, excelled at an EYBL Scholastic school, IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

Because the primary target for 2025, Kiyan Anthony, a four-star shooting guard, is a rising senior at Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville, NY, another member of this all-powerful league.

In late May, four-star shooting guard Dante Allen announced that he would transfer to Montverde Academy in Montverde, Florida in 2025. The Academy was the EYBL’s top scholastic group during the 2023-24 season and captured the national high school championship this spring by winning the 2024 Chipotle Nationals, held in Brownsburg, Indiana in early April.

Allen received a scholarship offer from the Syracuse basketball team in late April this year. Link, incidentally, won the national high school title in 2023. Last season, the Lions achieved an overall record of 26-7, were among the top five national teams and reached the semifinals of the 2024 Chipotle Nationals.

One of Cenac’s teammates on the 2024-25 Link squad will be Jerry Easter II, who also recently transferred to the Lions for his senior year. Easter, a four-star combo guard for 2025, has an offer from Syracuse Basketball, and I was recently told he remains interested in attending the Orange program.

Cenac is currently preparing to represent the U.S. Basketball U17 national team at the 2024 FIBA ​​World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in Istanbul through July 7. Also on that roster is Jordan Smith Jr., a five-star 2026 shooting guard who received an offer from ‘Cuse in May 2023 and has heard from the Syracuse basketball team since the contact period for his class began on June 15.

Shortly after the Orange made an offer to Cenac, 247Sports’ top analyst Mike McAllister wrote in an article that there had been talk of Cenac possibly visiting the Hill at some point, which would be crucial to the team’s chances of recruiting him.

He jumped more than 30 spots to No. 15 overall following 247Sports’ latest 2025 rankings update. Rivals.com moved Cenac up 21 spots to No. 16 nationally following its update for this cycle. On3 even ranked him No. 6 nationally.